Marion Herson Voorhees R.I.P.

[Tom148502]

Posted: 11/2/11 at 4:10pm

It maybe of some interest that former Broadway dancer and actress
Marion Herson Murphy Voorhees
died at the age of 102 on October 26, 2011 in Delray Beach Florida.
She was probably the last surviving cast member of such shows as FINE
AND DANDY, BABES IN ARMS and other musicals and plays of the last half
of the 1920s throough 1939.

In addition to the shows mentioned above, Marion appeared in A La
Carte, Lady Do, Rain or Shine, The Greenwich Village Follies, Strike
Up The Band, The Little Show, Jonica, Rosalie and Take A Chance.
During the run of Fine and Dandy, she stepped in for Nell O'Day,one of
the featured performers, on a few hours notice when that performer
broke her leg. Shade of 42nd Street, years before the film. Marion was
given the leading role In "Privilege Car," a drama. as her first
appearance In drama.

Miss Herson left the original run of Babes in Arms to marry
song-writer Owen Murphy, who had contributed songs to one of the early
shows that Marion appeared in, Rain or Shine. Owen Murphy also wrote
music and/or lyrics for the Broadway productions of Red Pepper, Spice
of 1922, Greenwich Village Follies of 1924, Hassard Short's Ritz
Revue, Top Hole, Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1925, Greenwich Village
Follies of 1925-1926, Hello Lola, Rainbow Rose, The Gang's All Here,
Hold Your Horses.

Owen Murphy died in 1965. Marion then married an old acquantance,
Donald Voorhees, then conductor of the Bell Telephone Hour orchestra
and long-time conductor and composer for the Cavalcade of America.
Donald had been one of the youngest pit conductors in the business
when he conducted the Broadway musical Rain or Shine in which Marion
appeared and to which Owen Murphy had contributed a few songs, one of
which, "Oh, Baby" became the hit of the show and received several
commercail recordings including a 2-sided 12" 78rpm recording by the
Benny Goodman orchestra. Voorhees died in 1989.

In addition to her husbands, Marion Voorhees was predecased in 1989 by
her daughter Susan Murphy Ballard who had appeared in the off-Btoadway
revue, The Salad of the Mad Cafe.

Surviving are her two sons, Owen Murphy Jr. and Dennis Murphy
(frequest host of Dateline) in Delray Beach, Florida.